Automated warehousing using robotic forklifts or other material handling vehicles

Abstract

Automated inventory management and material (or container) handling removes the requirement to operate fully automatically or all-manual using conventional task dedicated vertical storage and retrieval (S&R) machines. Inventory requests Automated vehicles plan their own movements to execute missions over a container yard, warehouse aisles or roadways, sharing this space with manually driven trucks. Automated units drive to planned speed limits, manage their loads (stability control), stop, go, and merge at intersections according human driving rules, use on-board sensors to identify static and dynamic obstacles, and human traffic, and either avoid them or stop until potential collision risk is removed. They identify, localize, and either pick-up loads (pallets, container, etc.) or drop them at the correctly demined locations. Systems without full automation can also implement partially automated operations (for instance load pick-up and drop), and can assure inherently safe manually operated vehicles (i.e., trucks that do not allow collisions).

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A material handling system adapted for use outside and within a warehouse or other facility having location fixed features (LFFs), the system comprising:
 a material transport vehicle including a plurality of sensors facilitating indoor and outdoor navigation; 
 wherein the sensors facilitating outdoor navigation include a global positioning satellite (GPS) geolocation sensor; 
 wherein the sensors facilitating indoor navigation include laser or video sensors operative to view, identify and track the LFFs; 
 wherein absolute coordinate fixes are collected using GPS or a combination of GPS and LFF position to determine the location of the vehicle; and 
 wherein the absolute coordinate fixes are used in conjunction with dead reckoning is used to determine the location of the vehicle between the LFFs. 
 
     
     
       2. The material handling system of  claim 1 , wherein the LFFs enable the vehicle to pick up, transport and place material to and from different material storage areas within the warehouse or other facility. 
     
     
       3. The material handling system of  claim 1  wherein vehicle location is based on a smoothed, weighted sum of the absolute coordinate fixes and dead reckoning. 
     
     
       4. The material handling system of  claim 1 , wherein the LFFs are preexisting structures or intentionally placed computer-readable codes. 
     
     
       5. The material handling system of  claim 4 , wherein the video video or laser sensors are operative to detect and identify the computer-readable codes. 
     
     
       6. The material handling system of  claim 5 , wherein the computer-readable codes are barcodes. 
     
     
       7. The material handling system of  claim 5 , wherein the computer-readable codes compound, elongated, or specifically encoded to overcome lighting conditions or view orientation. 
     
     
       8. The material handling system of  claim 4 , wherein the preexisting structures include floors, isles, walls, doorways, or shelving units within the warehouse or other facility. 
     
     
       9. The material handling system of  claim 1 , wherein the vehicle is a forklift; and
 the video or laser sensors enable the forklift to locate, engage, and manipulate pallets for loading, unloading and stacking or destacking operations. 
 
     
     
       10. The material handling system of  claim 9 , wherein the video or laser sensors are operative to identify one or more of the following:
 pallet locations, pallet types, lot identifiers, and key isle-way locations. 
 
     
     
       11. The material handling system of  claim 9 , wherein the video or laser sensors are operative to identify one or more of the following:
 pallet openings, pallet edges and pallet top locations. 
 
     
     
       12. The material handling system of  claim 9 , wherein the video or laser sensors are operative to target pick-and-place locations by identifying and locating templates or models.